Berliner Philharmoniker debut with Sir Simon Rattle in the Peter Sellars production of Le grand macabre

Recording Die Walküre and Siegfried with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, led by Jaap van Zweden

Third Norn in the new Metropolitan Opera Ring Cycle

CRITICAL ACCLAIM

"The crown belongs to Heidi Melton as Brünnhilde, who never loses lyrical intensity even in her most dramatic outbursts. With her warm, deep soprano, she creates every single phrase with luminosity and still has plenty of reserve for the big showdown at the end." (Badisches Tagblatt)

“Heidi Melton sang Brünnhilde with the aplomb of a great Wagner heroine – not one that is singing it for the first time. One must travel very far to hear Wagner of this quality.“ (Die Rheinpfalz)

"Melton's voice is only comparable to the young prewar Kirsten Flagstad and that of Birgit Nilsson – she acts and negotiates the depths and the tops of this, the most difficult of the written tessituras for dramatic soprano." (Mundo Clásico)

"A revelation: she possesses a powerful voice from one end of the tessitura to the other...her luminous ‘Dich teure Halle’ was exciting from the first note.” (Forum Opéra)

"Magical and memorable... What made Melton's singing wonderful was not volume — though her voice is by no means small — but freshness and feeling. From the moment she opened her mouth, she was artlessly moving, actually communicating." (Washington Post)

Photo courtesy of artist

ANECDOTES

Worked as a bridal seamstress – often makes or tweaks her own concert gowns, can sew a score in a pinch

Stumbled into singing as a backup hobby after not making the cut for a premier soccer team – after a reasonable amount of locked-in-her-room teenage despair

Her grandma was her favorite person – she gave Heidi the love of music by teaching her to play the piano

Loves all power ballads and will sing along shamelessly with full vibrato

Bakes intuitively – without measuring cups!

Knows every word in the movie Moonstruck and the television series Arrested Development, and every song lyric by the band Heart

Guest faculty at the University of British Columbia School of Music Summer Vocal Workshop

Active board member of Bay Area Vocal Academy, which prepares talented young singers for careers in classical music by partnering with world class solo artists for mentorships in all areas of the field

Has 8 brothers and sisters; her grandfather's first cousin was operatic legend Jussi Björling